The Paraguayan ruling class has been considered for decades as a â€œsoldier in the struggle against communismâ€ and an ally of the United States, in part, so that the brutal oppression of the workers and peasants would be guaranteed, in part, in order to compensate for the dependence of its big neighbors, Brazil and Argentina. The immovable opposition of the Senate to Venezuelaâ€™s entering Mercosur could only be overcome by suspension of Paraguayâ€™s membership as a result of the parliamentary coup that removed Lugo. Together with that, initiatives like the approach to the Pacific bloc promoted by Mexico, Colombia and Chile, or the negotiation in process of a Free Trade Agreement with Mexico, as well as the military agreements with the Pentagon for the use of airports, are changing Paraguayâ€™s position into a thorn in the side of the South American projects of Brazil and Argentina. But, at the same time, Paraguay is carrying out the biggest part of its foreign trade with these countries, including the sale of energy from ItaipÃº and YaciretÃ¡. Paraguayâ€™s illicit sales, that is, smuggling, add more than 5,000,000,000 dollars annually, equalling legal exports. The Paraguayan economy has been recovering from a fall of -1.2% of GDP in 2012, and, although this year 10% growth was anticipated [1], its extreme dependence on many small products (soy, meat) and scarce markets, makes it very vulnerable and exposed to big fluctuations. The bourgeoisie is seeking diversification by handing over the natural resources to the transnational corporations, like the Canadian mining company RÃ­o Tinto (to produce aluminum), US oil companies and others (interests that played their part in the coup against Lugo).

In a distant third place, divided, with hardly 10% of the votes and having meager parliamentary representation, the setback of Lugoâ€™s reformism is explained, in the first place, by the dreadful (for the people) governmental management of the former Bishop, who, far from fulfilling his campaign promises, kept the regime practically untouched; he approved the anti-terrorist law, the anti-worker MIPYMES law of labor insecurity; he endorsed the criminalization of social protest and of peasantsâ€™ protest, the massacre at Kupirenda (which opened up the crisis used as a pretext for his downfall) etc. And, in the second place, because of his shameful capitulation in front of the parliamentary coup, by disarming the incipient resistance, and then subordinating himself to the process of electoral legitimization of the coup that had thrown him out.

Thus, the center-left appeared in the elections, divided into three pieces: the Avanza PaÃ­s Front (that presented Mario Ferreiro as a candidate), the GuasÃº Front (made up of, among others, the Communist Party), with Lugo as a Senator Elect and whose candidate was AnÃ­bal Carrillo; and KuÃ±Ã¡ Pyrenda, a reformist-feminist pole, headed by Lilian Soto, a former Civil Service minister of Lugo himself.